November 2006

This was originally posted by Mike Blakey. I’ll be reposting more of his articles over the next day or two.
Before I became a Christian, one of the things that put me off was the doctrine of fear that I perceived to be central to the Christian faith. The promise of Godâ€™s love was often [...]

Mike Blakey, a former contributor to this blog and one of the finest young men I have ever known, has been killed while working in Nothern India.
There are few details available but the Indian Police are treating his death as a murder. His body was found partially covered with stones in a gully near a [...]

According to research sponsored by the Economic & Social Research Council at Manchester University, women priests will “save the church from sinking”.
Dr David Voas, a senior researcher at the universityâ€™s School of Social Sciences said: â€œNearly half of all priests ordained in recent years have been women. Close to a quarter of male parish priests [...]

Steven Tomkins reviews Richard Dawkins’ tome, handing out plaudits as well as brickbats.
RICHARD DAWKINS IS RIGHT. His deicidal bestseller The God Delusion attacks the absurdities and cruelties, the contradictions and superstitions, the rip offs and fantasies of religion across the world and throughout history. I couldn’t agree more. It’s enough to make you wish Abraham [...]

From The Methodist Church news service:
The Methodist Church is repeating its call for the Government to not replace Trident and to take a leading role in disarmament talks under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Steve Hucklesby, Methodist Secretary for International Affairs, said: â€œA decision to replace Trident would send an adverse signal to other states. [...]

The Guardian is lathered about the use of creationist materials in British schools. Produced by the group Truth in Science, which exists to promote “the critical examination of Darwinism in schools, as an important component of science education”, a DVD has apparently been used in 59 British schools.
I reckon that means there are 59 schools [...]

Advent is the season in the church year when Christians are called to be particularly counter-cultural. Indulgence is appropriate for Christmas, but during the four weeks preceding the feast of the birth of Christ we are invited to crash the secular party by the fast of reflection on the socially taboo subjects of death, [...]

i was interested to read in my newspaper this morning that Richard Dawkins is to establish The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Science and Reason, a charitable trust that will promote his militant atheism in British schools. Whilst i am always suspicious of any ‘ministry’ that takes its name from its founder, in principle I have [...]

Todd Craig of Tulsa, Oklahoma, fellow United Methodist clergy and former probationary peer group comrade, is back to blogging after wimping out for several months. Or maybe he has a really good excuse and I’ll find myself red-faced upon learning it.
I had stopped checking his blog, Acrobat, but after recently discovering that I failed [...]

I admit it. I almost blew a gasket when I read this over at Locusts & Honey: Learning from the Street Prophets
Steyn observed that Leftist efforts to co-opt the Christian faith seem artificial and pretended, despite the uphill battles that some liberal Christians are fighting to make their political activity a reflection of their sincere [...]

I’m not at all sure what to make of The Nativity Story — I suppose I’ll just have to wait for an opportunity to see it. Cinemas Online describes it as “biblically faithful, historically authentic and visually stunning” so big claims are being made. Whether they’ll be lived up to is another thing. But at [...]

It’s “Stir-up Sunday”, the last in the Christian calendar, so-called because of the words of the Collect for today from the Book of Common Prayer
Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus [...]

O Thou who camest from above,
the pure celestial fire to impart
kindle a flame of sacred love
on the mean altar of my heart.
There let it for thy glory burn
with inextinguishable blaze,
and trembling to its source return,
in humble prayer and fervent praise.
Jesus, confirm my heart’s desire
to work and speak and think for thee;
still let me guard the [...]

Over the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, I took in the movie Bobby at the AMC Fiesta Square 16 Theater in Fayetteville, Arkansas. (I mention the movie theater not to give them free advertising but to tell them if they are going to charge $4 for a small popcorn they could at least turn the heat [...]

At the heart of almost every controversy in the church lies a deceptively simple question: “How do we read the Bible?” It shouldn’t be surprising that different Christians (and parties of Christians) interpret the Bible differently. We’ve been doing that for a very long time. Where it becomes urgent is when one party “unchurches” another [...]

Have you ever heard of the degu?
Nor had I, until we called in at the Llys Nini Animal Shelter to hand over some money from my daughter’s birthday party. We called in the small animal house to see if they had any hamsters. We haven’t had a hamster for some while and I was thinking [...]

know. I’ve blogged about this one before. But it is definitely worth mentioning again. THE WENCHOSTER CATHEDRAL HYMN BOOK takes a good-natured pop at some of the church’s favourite hymns. How about Church of Alpha, to the tune “Dundee”
O Church of Alpha, by whose word,
House groups are filled with food.
To fill their hearts and [...]

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.
Our friend Dave Walker is pursuing a controversy over events on a UK university campus where a Christian Union has been ‘disaffiliated’ from the Student Union on the grounds that membership of the CU is not open to [...]